Straightforward interview leads to inspiring 'reunion'

Charles Johnson was explaining how he came to be president of Black Family Day, which celebrated its 45th anniversary on Monday.

Lori Gilbert

Charles Johnson was explaining how he came to be president of Black Family Day, which celebrated its 45th anniversary on Monday.

The people who took him in after his father, Charlie Floyd, died, had always arranged the gospel music at the annual celebration of black culture.

Beyond that, though, the 33-year-old Johnson said, "When I was 10 years old there was an article. I was at Louis Park. It was a hot day in Stockton and it said, 'Johnson works his Magic.' From that, my father imparted in me that when you have something, a gift, it's imperative that you share your gifts with the community."

Nice, touching explanation of his current philanthropy, so the natural follow-up question was, "What was this magic you were working?"

"I was jumping off a garbage can and ..." I stopped him there.

"I have that photo," I told him.

It was February 1990. Record photographer Clifford Oto was driving around looking for what we call "wild art."

He drove to Louis Park. There weren't many people at the park that day, he recalled, but he spotted Johnson, who'd turned a metal garbage can upside down and one time after another climbed atop it and proceeded to leap at a basketball hoop to dunk. He's framed by triangular shadows created by the park's handball courts.

The eventual headline, Oto said, referenced Los Angeles Lakers great Ervin "Magic" Johnson, who had not yet learned he was infected with HIV and forced to retire.

Oto, who has been at The Record, like me, since 1985, has shot thousands of photos. I've seen them all, and thousands of others, but that one was particularly special.

Oto won "some photo contest" for it, he said, and it ultimately was picked for use in a photography text book by Upton and Upton as an example of shutter speed and freezing action.

I always just thought it was inspiring and precious.

I'd gone back to school to get a teaching credential, taking classes at California State University, Stanislaus, and was in the program in 1990 when the photo of Johnson was taken. I asked for a blown-up, signed copy of the photo from Clifford, and when I got my credential and began teaching English and journalism part-time at Ceres High School in 1991, I took the photo to school.

The first bulletin board I made in the classroom featured that matted photo with the words above it, in block letters, "Yes, You Can."

Johnson, too, identified the photo as an inspiration.

"That's where everything started for me," Johnson said. "My dad made sure from that time on I understood possibilities."

Johnson lost his father when he was 16, but Patrice and Dobie MucCular took him into their family and treated him like a son. He played basketball at Stagg High School, where his coach, Archie Harris, who sadly died much too young, taught him more than how to really dunk. Harris made sure Johnson paid as much attention to school as he did sports.

Johnson went to college at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C., but was drawn back to Stockton by family ties. He is married, has three children - 4-year-old Ayande and 8-month-old twins Naina and Amir - works for the state as the employment coordinator for Department of Rehabilitation San Francisco District, and is in his second year as president of Black Family Day.

"It's been a blessing, an honor to be in this position," Johnson said. "I came home to give back to the community."

Johnson wants to do for others what leaders in the black community did for him, he said.

In addition to Harris, Johnson identified Cedric Anderson, a coach at the Boys and Girls Club, and Lincoln Ellis, the former president of that organization, as well as one-time president of the Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees, and Edwin Henry as being "instrumental in my development and doing what I was supposed to do."

Since his return home, Johnson has volunteered as a coach, and one of his athletes recently earned a scholarship, benefitting, Johnson said, from seeing "what success looks like."

No question Johnson is a success story, one who overcame the loss of a beloved parent but persevered and found a way to give back to the community.